Friday night, everyone in the Velvet Lounge cheered and clapped as Harley drew out the last note on her electric violin.
“I never get tired of hearing her play,” said Madisyn. She wouldn’t have thought that the violin and club music would mix well, but damn was she wrong.
“I’d love to be able to play an instrument.” Ally sighed, wistful. “I’m better with languages. And brewing beer. Can you play any instruments?”
“Nu-uh. But I will use Claudia’s head like a bongo if she doesn’t stop staring at Bracken. Does that count?”
Ally laughed. “Ooh, that sounds like fun.”
The little bitch was sitting at her usual seat in the corner, snuggled up to some guy. They looked pretty damn cozy, and Claudia sure acted convincingly smitten with him. But every now and then, her eyes would seek out Bracken. Each time she saw that he was paying her zero attention, her lips flattened.
Honestly, it was like watching someone send a “See, I’m over you” message to her ex, showing him what he could no longer have. Only Bracken wasn’t her ex. He was just a guy who’d turned her down. And she apparently felt the need to make it clear that it didn’t bother her . . . which meant it very clearly did bother her. It all just seemed so petty. And strange, because Madisyn had never pegged Claudia as petty.
Watching the she-wolf stare adoringly at her companion, Madisyn blew out a breath. “She’ll make a good actress. If she lives through tonight.” Her cat really wanted to ensure that that didn’t come to pass.
“Pay her no attention. Seriously.”
“How can I ignore her?” Madisyn planted a hand on her hip. “She has to know I can clearly see her watching my mate.”
“Yeah, I think she wants to do exactly what she is doing—piss you off. In her mind, it’s your fault that Bracken won’t be with her. That’s how she’ll see it, because she’s too vain to think he’d ever not want her. Such a fragile ego she must have. We can only pity her.”
“I don’t. I just plain despise her.”
Ally laughed again. “I really do like you, Mads.” She waved a hand. “Forget about her. Bracken doesn’t see any girl but you.” She looked at the male in question, and her brow creased. “He’s tenser than usual.”
Madisyn sighed. “It’s getting to him that no one’s been able to locate the Mavericks.” Since Donovan sent the pack a list of properties owned by the Maverick’s MC chapters a few days ago, the pack had scoped out each of them. There was no sign of the clan anywhere. The longer they went undiscovered, the more tense Bracken seemed to get.
Just as he’d threatened, he followed her to the shelter every day. He also remained at her side throughout the day, pitching in to help with whatever jobs she was doing, and he’d done it all without complaint, to her surprise. He really just seemed content as long as she was right there with him. And since it reduced her workload by half, there were benefits to him being so overprotective.
As they’d worked side by side, they’d talked more. Shared more stories from their childhoods, learned more things about each other, and developed a sort of rhythm. Instead of making them crazy, spending so much time together had strengthened their relationship and, in turn, strengthened their bond. Not so much that it had advanced a “step,” but enough that it was close to doing so.
In truth, she was so far gone for him it wasn’t even funny. Not that she’d told him that. Not yet. But he probably knew anyway.
Just then, Bracken’s gaze collided with hers. His mouth curved into a wicked smile that made her stomach clench and her nipples tighten.
“Hmm, that smile promised all sorts of dirty stuff,” said Ally.
Madisyn grinned. “It did, didn’t it?” And he’d better damn well deliver. He’d been building the sexual tension since this morning. He’d sent her several explicit text messages throughout the day and then taken her to dinner at a swanky restaurant, where he’d made a point of kissing and touching her and driving her nerve endings crazy. Seriously, her body was so ready to jump him, it was like having touch-hunger all over again.
She sent him a heated look from beneath her eyelashes. His own eyes narrowed slightly, and then he was making his way to the bar.
Ally straightened. “Oh, he’s coming over. And I’m just gonna tell you, because I know it’ll make you smile . . . Claudia is hating it.”
That did make Madisyn smile.
Reaching the bar, Bracken leaned over, mouth curved. “How’s my baby?”
“Looking forward to the end of her shift,” replied Madisyn as Ally melted away, giving them privacy.
Bracken crooked his finger at Madisyn. “Come here.”
Bracing her elbows on the bar, she leaned over and accepted the soft but toe-curling kiss he sucker punched her with. “Hmm. You’re good with that mouth.”
Said mouth kicked up into a smile. “So are you.” He cupped her jaw, raking his gaze over her face. Possessive. Hungry. “That’s better.”
She blinked. “Better?”
“You had that ‘I’m gonna smack some bitch down’ look on your face before. Now it’s gone.”
“Yeah, well, I am thinking of smacking one particular bitch around the club.”
Bracken didn’t pretend to misunderstand; he’d felt Claudia’s gaze, knew what she’d been doing. “Don’t let her get to you, baby. She’s clearly just a very bored woman with far too much time on her hands if she wants to spend her Friday night doing something like this.” He brushed his thumb over her chin. “Say the word and she’s gone. I’ll have her escorted out of here, and she’ll never be welcomed back.”
Madisyn snorted. “I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of that kind of reaction.”
“If you change your mind, just tell me.” Bracken planted yet another drugging kiss on his mate’s mouth. “Not long to go and we’ll be out of here. Which is a good thing, because all I can think about is shoving up that skirt and fucking your brains out.”
“Promises, promises.”
“Oh, it is a promise.” Letting his hand slip away from her face, he straightened. “Gotta do a few more laps of the club and make sure everything’s good. Be back soon.”
She watched him walk away, letting out a dreamy sigh at the sight of his rather epic ass. Sadly, that view was obstructed by the group of girls that appeared at the bar. She served them quickly. And then the next patrons. And the next.
A little later, realizing it was time for her break, she was just about to leave when a tall, wide-shouldered male ambled up to the bar. “Beer, please. Could you have it sent over to Bracken Slater? Tell him it’s from Claudia.”
Madisyn stilled, and her cat snarled. He was watching her carefully, knew exactly who she was to Bracken. She leaned forward. “If your boss is that curious about how I’ll react to another female buying my mate a drink, why didn’t she come on over here to place the order herself?”
He licked his front teeth. “Touchy little thing, aren’t you?”
“Touchy?” she echoed.
“It’s just a drink. A beer.” His mouth curved into a patronizing smile. “You should know that guys find petty jealousy a real turnoff.”
Madisyn felt her eyelid twitch. Oh, this guy could not be believed. She splayed her hands on the bar. “Petty? Petty is sitting in a corner, rubbing yourself all over one guy to get a reaction out of another guy—too vain to be able to handle that he is not now nor ever has been interested. Even you have to be rolling your eyes at that shit. If you’re not, you’re as pathetic as she’s acting.”
His eyes narrowed as he studied her. “You’re not a bobcat.”
“Aren’t I?”
Ally sidled up to her. “Is there a problem here?”
“Claudia just wanted to buy Bracken a congratulatory drink on finding his mate,” said the asshole, pretending innocence. “The cat here mistook Claudia’s intention.”
Ally snorted. “Not even a loyal shopper like me is going to buy that crap. Madisyn, go take your break. He isn’t worth your time.”
“You got that right.” Madisyn walked out from behind the bar and made her way to the break room near Harley’s office, resisting the urge to toss Claudia a well-deserved snarl.
The coffee maker and vending machine took the brunt of Madisyn’s annoyance as she forcibly jabbed buttons and stomped around. Plonking herself on one of the padded seats, she shoved aside a pile of newspapers and roughly bit into her candy bar. No, it wasn’t fair to take her mood out on the chocolate, but whatever.
Trying to pull back her frustration before it reached Bracken through their bond, she distracted herself by reading the safety posters on the wall and the notices on the corkboard, all the while tracing the scars on the surface of the table to give her restlessness an outlet. Little by little, her tension began to fade.
She was sipping her coffee when the door opened . . . and in breezed Claudia. Madisyn jumped to her feet, gaping. “What the ever-loving fuck?”
Claudia shut the door and held up her hands in a gesture of peace. “I just want to talk.”
“Yeah? I don’t.” She wanted to scratch the bitch’s eyes out. Her cat wanted to claw off her nipples, which sounded more fun.
Claudia shoved a hand through her hair, looking . . . embarrassed. “I owe you an apology. Bracken is your mate, and I didn’t give that the amount of respect it deserved. For that, I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“I think we can help each other.”
Madisyn stared at her, lips parted. “Are you high?”
“Look, now that he has a mate, I understand that it’s no longer possible for Bracken to be my personal bodyguard,” conceded Claudia, all reasonable. “But he can still be a member of my security team. Surely you would want that?”
“Oh, you’re definitely high.”
“He’s your mate. You care for him. And you have to know just how damaged he is deep inside.” Claudia glanced at the wall, gaze focused inward. “I knew someone whose bond just wouldn’t snap into place. Her mate . . . he was constantly wrestling with something dark inside himself. She thought the bond would be enough to help heal his wounds, but it wasn’t. And bit by bit, their bond disintegrated.” Claudia’s eyes met Madisyn’s. “Until then, I hadn’t known that a mating bond could crumble. But it turns out that if the bond is only partially formed, it can, in fact, happen.”
Madisyn hadn’t known that either.
“Having a mate won’t be enough to heal Bracken’s wounds. They’ll scab over, but that’s all. The only way he can deal with those wounds is by facing what caused them. He can’t go hunting extremists anymore—that would only eat at him inside—but he can still go against them in his way. Joining my security team would help him. In turn, that would help your bond progress.”
“How could that possibly happen, when you’d be doing your best to lure him away from me? You’ll want his loyalty to be only to you—don’t lie.”
Claudia shook her head. “No, I understand that it can’t be solely to me. But he can still owe me loyalty, just as he could pledge it to my father if he accepted him as his Alpha. I know that Bracken is tight with his pack mates, but I can also see that he seems to hang on the periphery of his pack now. He’s not comfortable there anymore. A fresh start would be good for him and, by extension, good for your relationship. You don’t want him in a place where he’s haunted by memories—good and bad—that will make him think of his family.”
“And your pack will easily accept a feline?”
“We already have a bobcat, so you’ll be around another of your kind. We’re very tolerant of other breeds of shifter. We don’t believe that canines should stick with canines and that felines should stick with felines. That is a narrow-minded viewpoint.”
Madisyn narrowed her eyes. “Tell me this: why are you so determined to have him on your team? He can help your image and scare the extremists that are on your ass, sure, but you don’t need him. Tell me the truth, and then we can talk about whether or not it’s worth us joining your pack.” Calling the she-wolf’s bluff, she skirted around her and went to leave the room.
“I was approached by the marketing team of a major TV company,” said Claudia. When Madisyn turned to face her, she went on. “They’re interested in giving me my own show. It’s an opportunity I’m not willing to pass up. But it will bring me a level of attention that has plenty of negativity attached to it. I’ll need my security team to be tougher and tighter than ever.” Claudia stepped toward Madisyn. “No matter what Bracken says, I don’t believe he isn’t part of the Movement.”
And then Madisyn understood. “You believe that if you have Bracken’s protection, you’ll have the Movement’s protection. Sponsoring them didn’t gain you that, huh?” It wouldn’t surprise Madisyn to learn that Claudia had tried seducing Cain before moving on to Bracken.
“No, it didn’t. Think of it this way. If Bracken’s part of my team, he’s not hunting with his fellow members of the Movement. You won’t have to worry about him going on missions with them. You won’t have to worry that he might one day not come home to you.”
Madisyn tilted her head. “I see it now. You want him in your bed, but that’s mostly because you were hoping you could use sex to control him. To get what you want from him. Only it didn’t work. And his rejection pissed you off, didn’t it?”
Claudia’s lips tightened. “I wasn’t planning to control him with sex. But yes, his rejection hurt my ego—I’m a dominant female, after all. And yes, maybe I wanted to show him tonight what he was missing. But that was dumb and juvenile, and I only cheapened myself in doing it.”
She truly did seem shamefaced by her behavior, but Madisyn wasn’t buying it at all. No, Claudia had realized that making him jealous was fruitless, so she was now trying something else.
“He won’t join my pack for me,” Claudia added. “But he’ll do it for you. And I think you know I’m right—that the best thing for him is a fresh start.”
Madisyn stepped right into her personal space. “The best thing for him . . . is to be away from manipulative users like you. I see you, Claudia. You might truly support the Movement, but you don’t sponsor them out of the goodness of your heart. You might be set on representing shifters everywhere when you go on TV and present yourself as the regular girl next door. But you don’t do it for our kind; you do it because you relish the attention. You’re not interested in Bracken’s emotional state or whether our mating bond fully forms. In fact, you’re probably thinking you can sever the bond with time, since it’s only partially formed.”
Claudia’s eyes hardened. “You’ve got me all wrong.”
“I don’t think so. But I do think you’ll go far in the acting business, if that helps.” Madisyn went nose to nose with her. “Now stay the fuck away from my mate. No more gazing at him, trying to get his attention, or attempting to recruit him for your team. He has no interest in you on any level—”
Claudia barked a laugh. “Oh, he’s interested. Initially, he only turned me down because he was set on making himself suffer, so he deprived himself of the things he wanted. If he hadn’t realized you were his mate—and Lord, he took his time coming to that realization—he’d have eventually come to me.”
Claudia tilted her head. “As for you . . . I watched him plenty, so I know he showed no interest in you until now. He wouldn’t let himself have me, but he let himself have you. I guess he didn’t see that as denying himself pleasure or happiness—you simply weren’t that important.” Claudia gave her a look of mock sympathy. “That must hurt. And it must play on your mind, must make you wonder if the bond will ever truly snap into place or if you’re just not enough for him.”
Once upon a time, it might have. But now? “No, it really doesn’t. And I’m done here. Like I said, you need to stay the fuck away from him. If you don’t—”
“You’ll do what, bobcat?” Claudia laughed. “Go ahead. Tell me what you’ll do.”
Subtly grabbing the newspaper, Madisyn gave her a feral smile. “I’d rather just show you. Oh, by the way, I’m not a bobcat.”
“Really? Then what are you?” asked Claudia, though she didn’t sound particularly interested.
Madisyn smirked. “I’m a pallas cat.”
Claudia’s grin faltered, and then Madisyn struck.
Planting his hands on the bar, Bracken looked at Ally, tension in every line of his body. “Where’s Madisyn?”
Pausing in drying a glass with a cloth, the Beta frowned. “She’s on her break. Why?”
Turning away, Bracken stalked through the crowd toward the break room. His wolf paced, just as anxious.
Derren caught up to him, asking, “What’s going on?”
“Something’s wrong with Madisyn,” said Bracken, flexing his fingers. “I can feel it through the bond. It’s not so much anger as . . . battle adrenaline, maybe.”
“Fuck,” Derren bit out.
As they neared the break room and Bracken saw four of Claudia’s guards lingering near the door, he rumbled a growl. “Out of my fucking way.”
One of the guards raised a placatory hand. “Claudia just wants to talk to her. Your cat was a little upset after Claudia asked to send you a drink to congratulate you on finding your mate. They’ll be fine in there and—”
Crash.
Heart leaping into his throat, Bracken pushed through the guards and kicked the door open, making it ram into the wall. And he stopped dead. Hell, they all stopped dead. Because Madisyn was dragging Claudia along the floor by a fistful of her hair—a floor that was covered in the litter that had tumbled out of the fallen trash can.
The she-wolf’s cries were muffled, thanks to the wad of newspaper that had been stuffed in her mouth. Claudia managed to pull the wad out just as Madisyn hauled her to her feet and started ramming Claudia’s head against the locker.
All the males suddenly snapped out of their stupor, but no one moved to intervene. It was never a good idea to get between two fighting female shifters. Never. They’d just as easily turn on you for the implication that they couldn’t finish the fight themselves. So Bracken, Derren, and Claudia’s team all just stood there, shouting encouragement at whichever female they were supporting.
Claudia lifted her legs and kicked the locker, shoving her weight back at Madisyn. Bracken and his wolf snarled as their mate stumbled backward and crashed into the kitchenette counter. Since she still had a firm grip on Claudia’s hair, the she-wolf was forced to go with her.
With a disturbing laugh, Madisyn snatched an unwashed cup from beside the sink and smashed it over Claudia’s head. Drops of coffee and bits of porcelain splattered all over the she-wolf and the floor.
Shrieking, Claudia slammed her foot on Madisyn’s instep, wrenching a hiss of pain out of her. Bracken clenched his fists against the urge to stalk forward and grab the little bitch by her throat.
Her expression one of pure fury, Madisyn yanked Claudia’s head back by her hair, grabbed the—oh God—coffee maker, and brought it crashing down on Claudia’s face. There was a nauseating crack. Claudia cried out. Blood spurted. His wolf bared his teeth, satisfied.
Madisyn shoved her at the table with a sneer. Claudia, far too dazed to steady herself, went down as she staggered forward. There was a god-awful thump as her head smacked the table, knocking Claudia clean out.
The security team jumped into action, eyes narrowed on Madisyn, but Bracken and Derren planted themselves in their path.
Bracken jabbed a finger at them. “You don’t fucking touch her.”
“She just beat the shit out of our boss!” one of the males yelled.
“Oh, please.” Breathing a little fast, Madisyn sidled up to Bracken. “I only smacked her around a little.”
The thing was . . . Bracken knew she wasn’t kidding. He’d seen how vicious his mate could be. Seen how fast she could incapacitate someone if she chose to do so. Technically, she hadn’t fought with the she-wolf. Hadn’t given her the respect of a duel. No, she’d dragged her around the room, hitting her with objects and knocking her into shit—which would make the embarrassment of losing the fight much worse for Claudia. In that sense, what Madisyn had done to her was nothing, really. A direct message that, in Madisyn’s view, Claudia herself was nothing.
“She went in there to make peace with you,” another male ground out.
Madisyn snorted. “She wanted to know what I’d do if she wouldn’t stay away from Bracken. Now she knows. And if any of you can deny that someone who tries coming between mates had that coming, I’ll call bullshit.”
The males didn’t say anything. What could they say? Madisyn had only been defending her mating, and she’d had every right to do so.
“Here’s what you’re going to do,” Bracken said to the wolves. “You’re going to leave. You, Claudia, the rest of your team—you’re all gonna leave right now. And you will not return to this club ever again.”
Bristling, the male in the center shook his head. “Claudia’s father won’t like hearing that. It’s really not a good idea to have her barred from here.”
“It wouldn’t be a good idea for her to get within two feet of my mate ever again in her life,” said Bracken. “So if you’re really interested in Claudia’s safety, you’ll get her out of here, and you’ll keep her away.” He stepped aside, allowing the males to pass.
Casting odd looks at Madisyn, they scooped up a bleeding, coffee-covered Claudia and removed her from the room.
Bracken guided his mate over to the sink, wet a paper towel, and dabbed the blood spatter from her face and neck. “I can’t leave you alone for five minutes, can I?”
“You mad at me?” she asked.
“Mad?” He grabbed her hand and put it over his cock, letting her feel how hard he was. His wolf was just as turned on by the strength and mercilessness she’d shown just now.
Her brows lifted. “I see.”
“Besides, how can I be mad when our scents have mixed?”
She frowned, nostrils flaring. “Shit, they have.” And it made feminine satisfaction flutter through her. “I don’t get why.”
He tucked her hair behind her ear. “I do. After the barbecue, you swore that the next time someone attacked what we had, you’d defend it. And that was exactly what you did.” He kissed her. “Whatever Claudia said to you, you didn’t let her fill your head with doubts, didn’t start to doubt me all over again. That strengthened the bond.” And now she smelled of him, just as he did of her. Everyone would know the moment they picked up her scent that she was mated, that she was his. And that made the cock in her hand throb. “You’d better take care of this when we get back to my lodge.”
Her smile was all sin. “I think I can do that.”